This one hits deep.
Holly Madison, the sparkling blonde star of The Girls Next Door and former queen of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy harem — is opening up in a VERY important way.
In a new interview with Page Six, the 45-year-old shared that she believes her undiagnosed autism played a key role in leading her to the infamous Playboy Mansion when she was just 21 years old and looking for connection.
Related: Holly Madison Cheating Saga Continues — Zak Bagans Allegedly Preyed On A Fan!
As U may recall, Holly was officially diagnosed with high-functioning autism in 2023 after first voicing her suspicions about it a couple years earlier. For her, the news of that official diagnosis didn’t come as a bombshell but as something more like… clarity. She told the outlet that she always knew she had “certain social difficulties and difficulties relating to people.”
But for a while, instead of questioning that, she chalked it up to her upbringing. She explained:
“[I] grew up in a really, really remote place in Alaska.”
Still, it wasn’t until years later — after becoming a mother and then going through a divorce from her now-ex-husband Pasquale Rotella — that things started to click. At one point, Rotella voiced concern to Madison’s mother about Holly’s struggles with connection. That prompted the blonde bombshell to dig deeper, particularly after Holly’s mother revealed that she too had long sensed “something was going on” with her daughter. And so, after a series of appointments, Holly got answers in the form of that aforementioned autism diagnosis.
But here’s where things get particularly interesting for our purposes today: Madison now believes that her autism made her more vulnerable to falling into the arms of a much older, far more powerful man. That man, of course, being the late Hef — decades her senior and notoriously controlling, as Madison and others have spoken about in recent years.
She explained how she thinks that the undiagnosed autism effectively pushed her straight to Hef:
“I feel like having the difficulty I did connecting with people for so long made me feel like when I was meeting somebody who was older and more experienced and maybe a little bit better at manipulating people, I thought, ‘Oh, wow, maybe I’m meant to be with an older man. Maybe this is what it is.’ It just felt like love.”
Then she added:
“It definitely sheds some light on where my feelings were at and my motivations and why I had certain impressions about things.”
And most heartbreakingly, she shared how things could have been different if she knew what she had been dealing with internally at the time:
“Maybe I would have handled myself a little differently.”
Wow.
That kind of quiet reflection speaks volumes about Holly, but also about how crucial a diagnosis can be for young people at complicated times in their lives.
Holly has always been known for her glam and poise, but this new chapter is something else. She’s opening up AND helping others find their courage to seek answers. For example, later this month she’ll serve as ambassador for the 2025 Grant a Gift Gala in Las Vegas, which raises money for children and young adults on the autism spectrum. It’s her first major public appearance since going public with her diagnosis — and we LOVE to see it!!!
Reactions, y’all? Drop ’em in the comments (below)…
[Image via FayesVision/WENN]
The post Holly Madison Says Undiagnosed Autism Made Her Vulnerable To Hugh Hefner & Lure Of Playboy appeared first on Perez Hilton.